Upcoming Events & Announcements
Dear ones at Grace,
We began our Franklin Area Big Day May 2 at “can't see o’clock” at Standing Indian to try for a Barred Owl. Before we reached the road into the campground one was on the roadside maybe enjoying its breakfast. This was an unexpected great start to a better than expected day. We drove 183 miles and logged our last species at 9:07pm, a Chuck-wills-widow. At the end of the day we had found 90 species. That’s good news for CareNet and Grace, perhaps not so good for those who pledged on the 75 species estimate. We birded the areas of Standing Indian/Rainbow Springs Bog, Patton Valley, the Greenway at the wetland and Suli Marsh, Iotla Valley, Walnut Creek Gap (no added species there) and the general Franklin area. We had some wonderful surprises…a Prothonotary Warbler was a first Macon County record for us. We found a Marsh Wren at Tessentee Bottoms that was also a first for us in Macon Co. The unexpected was a Willow Flycatcher, Grasshopper Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow. Though we found some species we didn’t expect, we missed some that we often get like Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-throated Warbler and Canada Warbler. All in all it was a great and exhausting big day. As in past years, half of the funds received from pledges will go to the church building fund. The other half will be sent to CareNet. Thank you for participating in this fund- raising event.
We have attached a list of the species and where we saw or heard them in case anyone is interested.
John and Cathy
We began our Franklin Area Big Day May 2 at “can't see o’clock” at Standing Indian to try for a Barred Owl. Before we reached the road into the campground one was on the roadside maybe enjoying its breakfast. This was an unexpected great start to a better than expected day. We drove 183 miles and logged our last species at 9:07pm, a Chuck-wills-widow. At the end of the day we had found 90 species. That’s good news for CareNet and Grace, perhaps not so good for those who pledged on the 75 species estimate. We birded the areas of Standing Indian/Rainbow Springs Bog, Patton Valley, the Greenway at the wetland and Suli Marsh, Iotla Valley, Walnut Creek Gap (no added species there) and the general Franklin area. We had some wonderful surprises…a Prothonotary Warbler was a first Macon County record for us. We found a Marsh Wren at Tessentee Bottoms that was also a first for us in Macon Co. The unexpected was a Willow Flycatcher, Grasshopper Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow. Though we found some species we didn’t expect, we missed some that we often get like Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-throated Warbler and Canada Warbler. All in all it was a great and exhausting big day. As in past years, half of the funds received from pledges will go to the church building fund. The other half will be sent to CareNet. Thank you for participating in this fund- raising event.
We have attached a list of the species and where we saw or heard them in case anyone is interested.
John and Cathy